BOOK XIX. XIX. 49-52 



Assyria, about whose work \ve shall speak " in another 

 \ oliime. The kings of Rome indeed cultivated their 

 gardens with th(Mr own hands ; in fact it was from his 

 garden that even Tarquin the Proud sent that cruel 

 and bloodthirsty message to his son.'' In our Laws 

 of the Twelve Tables the word ' farm ' never occurs 

 — the word ' garden ' is ahvays used in that sense, 

 while a garden is denoted by ' family estate '. 

 Consequently even a certain sense of sanctity 

 attached to a garden, and only in a garden and in 

 the Forum do we see statues of Satyrs dedicated as 

 a charm against the sorcery of the envious,although 

 Plautus speaks ^ of gardens as being under the 

 guardianship of Venus. Nowadays indeed under the 

 name of gardens people possess the hixury of regular 

 farms and country houses actually w^ithin the city. 

 This practice was first introduced at Athens by that 

 connoisseur of luxurious ease. Epicurus; down to 

 his day the custom had not existed of having eountry 

 dwelHngs in towns. 



At Rome at all events a garden was in itself a poor Vaiueofa 

 man's farm ; the lower classes got their market-sup- ga^'^'for 

 pUes from a garden — how much more harmless their /^o<i «'"^ 

 fare was then ! It gives more satisfaction, forsooth, '^*'' 

 to dive into the depth of the sea and seek for the 

 various sorts of oysters '^ at the cost of a shipwreck, 

 and to fetch birds * from beyond the river Rion, birds 

 which not even legendary terrors/ can protect — in 

 fact these actuallv make them more prized ! or to go 

 fowling for other birds 'J in Numidia and among the 

 tombs of Ethiopia,'' or to fight with wild beasts, and, 

 in hunting for game for someone else to devour, 

 to be devoured oneself! But I protest, how Httle 

 does garden produce cost, how adequate it is for 



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